Jake,
I am not sure if putting the food in the tray encourages the chewing or not, but would suggest modifying your set up to accomodate keeping the food out of the tray.
As for chewing. I have about 300 female breeder rats that I keep in home made racks using the mortar mixing tubs from home depot (I can't remember for sure, but I think they are better/heavier than Lowes). Anyway, as long as the rats have food and water I have very little trouble with chewing. I will also tell you that once they learn how to chew, they get wise and are prone to be repeat offenders. For that reasons when I do have a tub where they have chewed through, I feed the whole tub off.
Good luck
Grant

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